A supply chain people can rely on — at both ends.

A gum arabic supply chain runs through people and through trees before it reaches your plant. Commitment, for us, means a purchasing relationship a producer group can plan around, and a harvesting method the acacia can survive. We set out below what that commitment covers, and what it does not.

04 · A

Purchasing a household can plan around

We buy directly from producer groups, at prices agreed and recorded before the harvest starts, rather than negotiated lot by lot at the roadside once the season is under way. A committed price lets a producer group plan a season instead of gambling on it.

More than 500,000 Chadian households draw part of their income from gum collection across the country’s gum belt. A purchasing decision made in N’Djamena or Paris reaches further than a single transaction — it reaches the households behind it.

500,000+ CHADIAN HOUSEHOLDS LIVE FROM GUM COLLECTION

04 · B

A tapped tree is a standing tree

Gum arabic is harvested by tapping the bark of Acacia Senegal and Acacia Seyal trees — the tree is wounded lightly, not felled. A tree that keeps producing gum season after season is worth more standing than cut, which is the opposite incentive from most cash crops grown on cleared land.

Acacia stands fix soil and slow the advance of the Sahara, and the belt where our gum is collected sits within the corridor of the Great Green Wall initiative across the Sahel. We did not invent that fact; we depend on it, the same as the households who tap the trees.

TAPPED, NEVER CUT · GREAT GREEN WALL CORRIDOR

04 · C

What we refuse to buy

We do not buy gum without a documented origin, whatever price is offered for it. We do not re-route gum through a zone to obscure where it actually came from, including zones affected by conflict. Both practices exist in the regional trade; both put a buyer’s due-diligence file at risk, and we choose not to carry that risk for anyone.

We also try not to promise what we cannot show evidence for. Where a claim on this site cannot yet be backed by a document, we say so, rather than round it up into something that sounds better.

NO UNDOCUMENTED GUM · NO CONFLICT-ZONE RE-ROUTING · NO UNAUDITABLE PROMISES

THE DOCUMENTS

What we put in writing.

Specimen layouts, shown as they are issued. Field values are completed season by season — nothing is printed before it exists.

PURCHASE COMMITMENTMI-PC-00 · SPECIMEN

Producer group—

Zone—

Committed volume—

Price mechanism—

Season—

Signatory—

ZONE IMPACT NOTEMI-ZI-00 · SPECIMEN

Zone code—

Households dependent (est.)—

Hectares under tapping—

Acacia stand condition—

Reporting period—

QUESTIONS

Three questions buyers ask.

Is this certified fair trade?

No. We are not fair-trade certified, and we will not describe ourselves as such. What we do is publish our purchasing practices and welcome audits of them; formal certification is on our roadmap, not yet in our documents.

How do producers benefit?

Through a committed price agreed before the season, a buyer who takes the volume it promised to take, and a direct relationship instead of a chain of collectors and traders each taking a share of the same lot.

Can buyers visit?

Yes. Buyers can visit N’Djamena year-round, and the collection zones and producer groups during the harvest, between November and March, on reasonable notice.

NEXT STEP

Ask for a specimen file before you ask for a price.

Request samples & a specimen file

RESPONSE WITHIN 24 H · DOCUMENTS BEFORE COMMITMENTS

THE OTHER PILLARS

Traceability

Every lot tells you where it grew.

Quality

No lot leaves without its file.

Competitiveness

A shorter chain is the only honest discount.